Coronavirus Update: Face Coverings Required, Updates on Policing Reforms

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House Speaker Tina Kotek

Coronavirus Update: Face Coverings Required, Updates on Policing Reforms

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I hope you will be able to relax over the upcoming July 4th holiday weekend. We ALL need a little down time to rejuvenate. Please keep your celebrations small and local.
To give my team a breather, we’ll be taking a break from the newsletter for the rest of this week, and we’ll be back with you again on Monday, July 6th.

So, on to the day’s news:

As we heard from Governor Brown this morning in her press conference, this is another moment in the pandemic where Oregonians will need to work together to keep each other safe and reduce the spread of the coronavirus. That means:

  • Wearing a mask to cover your mouth and nose when you’re in public indoor spaces,
  • Staying 6 feet away from other people, and
  • Washing your hands frequently.

Our armor in this fight is common sense and simple actions.

The basic truth is that Oregon’s economic recovery will stall out if we don’t reduce the spread. Essential workers will continue to put their health, and the health of their families, at risk if we don’t reduce the spread. People of color will continue to get sicker at higher rates if we don’t reduce the spread. Health care workers will continue to get sick if we don’t reduce the spread. And, more people will die.

I said yesterday that I have confidence in what we can achieve together. We’ve been doing it, and we can continue to do it.

One last thing to keep in mind: If we do our parts and prevent infections this weekend, we won’t see numbers go down for two to three weeks because it takes up to 14 days for the virus to show itself. So, please, don’t get discouraged. This is hard work, and there’s no instant success. But it’s worth it – for each other and for our state.


Mask Up

Face Coverings Required

Starting today, face coverings will be required statewide for all indoor public spaces. You can find all the details here.

One of the things the state is doing to help is ramping up its distribution of masks to businesses and county health departments. For example, the state already had 1.5 million masks on hand and has sent 200,000 to grocers and distributed the rest to county governments to help with the new requirement.

More help will be going out to county emergency command centers soon, and we’ll get you that information when we have it.


Children – Infection Rates, Wearing Masks

Coronavirus infections are increasing among children. As reported by The Oregonian, cases among Oregon children younger than 10 were up noticeably this month, representing the fastest growth rate of new infections in any age range. Public health officials have said that most of the spread to children is coming from community spread, as adults bring the virus into their homes or children are socializing with children from other households. You can read The Oregonian story here.

This is certainly a concerning trend. This, and the overall increase in infection rates, might influence whether schools can open in the fall. But, as I said above, we can hold the line on these numbers by common sense actions – wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart, and washing our hands regularly.

Currently, masks are strongly recommended for children between 2 and 12 years of age. Children under 2 should not wear masks.

Because children between the ages of 2 and 12 years of age can have challenges wearing a mask, face shield, or face covering properly (e.g., excessively touching the face covering, not changing the face covering if visibly soiled, risk of strangulation or suffocation, etc.), public health experts say that if face coverings are worn by this age group, they should be worn with the assistance and close supervision of an adult. Masks, face shields, or face coverings should never be worn by children when sleeping.


Policing Reforms

The police accountability and transparency bills the legislature passed last week are a long overdue beginning. You can find a good summary of those bills here. I’m looking forward to more public conversation and new ideas to break down the institutional polices that have injured Black, Indigenous, and people of color in Oregon.

Yesterday, I announced the appointment of the Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform, created by the passage of House Bill 4201 during last week’s special session. The committee will start their work next week to continue the review of current policing practices and make recommendations for further reforms. Read more about the committee’s mission and membership in the announcement here.

I know this is not a theoretical conversation. It is urgent. The people who are joining the Black Lives Matter uprising in Portland and across our country are experiencing the dangers from police escalating interactions with peaceful protesters almost every night. The Portland Police Bureau’s actions last night in North Portland (on North Lombard, in my district) sparked me to write an email to Mayor Wheeler this morning. You can read more about the situation in North Portland here and my email to the Mayor here.


Eviction Moratorium Information

The legislature passed legislation last week to extend the Governor’s prohibition on evictions through September 30th. We know that most renters are still paying their rent, and many are making sacrifices to do so. It’s really important to keep people housed while we are fighting the coronavirus and the economy starts to revive.

Because of the pandemic, tenants can defer paying their rent between April 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020. Landlords cannot evict tenants for nonpayment during this time. Tenants will have a six-month grace period (until March 31, 2021) to pay back the deferred rent. Landlords cannot charge late fees or other charges based on nonpayment of rent from April 1 through September 30. Landlords also cannot give notices of termination without cause or file for an eviction based on a termination without cause between April 1 and September 30.

The Oregon Law Center has put together some information for tenants. You can find it here.

General information for renters during the pandemic can be found here.


The Latest News

  • Today, Business Oregon launched a new $3 million grant program for organizations with the ability to support underserved small businesses impacted by the pandemic. The application period opens today, and applications will be accepted through July 17. More details and a link to download application materials available here.
  • The Oregon Health Authority reported 281 new confirmed and presumptive cases of coronavirus today, bringing the state total to 8,931. Tragically, one new death was reported today, meaning 208 Oregonians have now died of the coronavirus.
  • Today is the 24th day this month we’ve had more than 100 new cases, and the 6th day since June 19th that we’ve had more than 200 new cases.
  • OHA's COVID-19 Update can be found here. Click on each image below for more information.

July 1 OHA Data

July 1 Hospital Capacity

July 1 Emergency Department

To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx

Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.

Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.

Best,

Tina

Tina Kotek

State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House

email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek